Sir Richard Branson Chides Mayor Michael Bloomberg And Marissa Mayer, Says The Office Will Be A Thing Of The Past

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Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire man of space tourism and founder of Virgin Airlines, is chiding New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, saying the office will soon become a thing of the past.

Branson is a respectful guy and says Bloomberg is someone he rarely disagrees with. But Branson says Bloomberg is just plain wrong when he says he’s always thought working from home is “one of the dumber ideas I’ve ever heard.”

However, on this occasion I disagree completely. Many employees who work from home are extremely diligent, get their job done, and get to spend more time with their families. They waste less time commuting and get a better work/life balance. To force everybody to work in offices is old school thinking.

Branson said he has always worked from home and it has worked well for him.

But the issue is more about the future of work more than anything else. As one commenter said, in the future a lot of people in the workforce will not even have jobs. Instead, they will have projects.

It’s a future I feel right at home with. My job is to write about the Internet and all things related to the enterprise. I live in Portland, and my office is my home. Thank goodness, too. I mean, I’m making a blueberry pancake as I write this post, my laptop perched on the kitchen counter.

So I say, right on, Sir Richard, my desk is the kitchen counter. I’d have it no other way.